This article explores the way in which positivism and liberalism were received in the social and political thougth of Perú in the period 1890-1920. Intellectuals from different politial backgrounds considered Positivism to be a scientific method of research, while liberalism was seen as the ideology that facilitated social and political transformation of society. In this sense, and in an introductory manner, this essay analyzes the work of one of the most important Peruvian intellectual as the beginning of the 20th century, Francisco García Calderón.